This invention relates generally to seating arrangements for aircraft and more specifically to the design of a seating system which facilitates ingress and egress of a pilot and his passengers through a relatively small door leading to a relatively small passenger compartment.
Most aircraft designed for private or non-commercial use tend to be relatively small and are arranged to carry a limited number of passengers in addition to the pilot. In such aircraft, the passenger and pilot compartment are somewhat confining and are generally of a height which would not permit an adult to stand erect. Then too, the door leading to the passenger compartment is quite small which leads to difficulty during entry and egrees. For example, in the aircraft for which the instant invention has been specifically designed, the outside diameter of the fuselage in the neighborhood of the passenger compartment is only 55 inches and the doorway is only about 42 inches high by 24 inches wide. Notwithstanding these rather small dimensions, entry into and egrees from the aircraft can be accomplished comfortably and gracefully due to the manner in which the seating system is designed.